Adding scart to an old TV

I found an old AKAI dumped on the foot part. If the police saw me, I would have been booked for stealing by finding. In a first world country it's a crime to pick up rubbish!!

Anyway, it's got a scart slot. How hard would it be to solder in a socket? Is it worth it?
Also, I can't figure out how to separate the rear housing from the circuit board. There is a long rod that inserts into the rear case and attached to something that looks like a solenoid with a metal clip. What should I remove?

Having trouble uploading pict, sorry I'll do it latter.

It wouldn't be difficult to add in a socket. If all you wanted to use was the SCART, in most cases you'd simply cut the RGBS inputs to the jungle IC and connect your socket instead, via 75 ohm resistors and 220uF caps if necessary.

If you wanted to retain the original functionality of the TV, you'd need to add a switch to select between the original inputs and your SCART one.

Personally I wouldn't bother, seems a waste of time.
So many people have jumped on the Flat Panel TV bandwagon the old CRT TVs are worthless.
I just got given a 2001 21" Sony Trinitron for nothing. I am not sure what it is like in Australia but in the UK there are tons of them going for between £5 and £10.

I suppose the question you need to ask yourself is... Is it my only reasonably priced option to get a CRT with Scart or Do I want to add Scart to a old TV for a nice satisfying project.

If it is the latter, do it, it would be good fun trying to get it working. If not, save your time and money and get on eBay.

The problem is SCART is extremely rare in this shitty country, not even 1% of TV's have it.

I didn't realise, I thought you had scasrt too in Oz. Beofre HDMI, what was the standard conencter then? Composite RCA or Component? How would you normally get an RGB signal to your TV? Or can't you directly.

rcantor77 said:

I didn't realise, I thought you had scasrt too in Oz. Beofre HDMI, what was the standard conencter then? Composite RCA or Component?

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Yeah, composite, component or S-Video.

rcantor77 said:

How would you normally get an RGB signal to your TV? Or can't you directly.

Click to expand...

You can't, unfortunately. Don't know why we adopted the European TV standard, yet the American style connections. At least we got half of it right.

I guess it would be an interesting project. The reason is that I want the best picture quality possible out of my AES and MV1C when I finally set it up. At the moment I seem to believe a CRT is the best way to go, and Thanks Hewitson, but I don't have an electronics background although I'm good at soldering and can get things done with the aid of photos etc.

This is the Akai. See the bottom photo, how do you remove that large black unit from the horizontal bar which is part of the rear case?

BTW, I read a post here where someone gave directions of how to tap directly into the tv's rgb.

Correct me if I'm wrong but obviously the circuit was designed with a SCART input in mind. Even if a socket is installed I'd question if you could even use it.

Someone else might be able to answer this question but would it be right to assume that additional uninstalled video inputs would be turned off in the service menu? and that (once the socket is installed) all you'd need to do would be to turn that input on? or is it as simple as it sounds, install socket and away you go.

I ask this as my samsung LCD has the option to enable additional HDMI inputs despite my TV only having one.

I can see several empty places that were screened for resistors near that SCART socket.

The RGB lines as said already are terminated on 75ohm resistors. It stands a chance that these missing resistors (and who knows what else) are all part of the SCART plug.

Without a schematic for the TV you will be playing trial and error. You could try putting a chassis mounted SCART socket on there and seeing if it works, but if they left the socket off they probably left all assocaited non essential components off too.

So unless you have an identical TV with a SCART socket or a schematic you might be wasting time.

However, Since there so rare though I wouldn't give up right away.

Follow the RGB lines and see if they run to the missing resistors.. stands a good chance their 75ohm. See what else is missing. (sometimes empty spaces dont' have to be populated, there just there due to common board design)

I'd give it a go :-)

Yes that makes sense. I will try to find a schematic, although I'd rather have a Panasonic than an Akai. Actually I have a Panasonic 32" with a SCART that I bought new 22 years ago. It was considered huge then and all my friends visited a lot. I love the thing and now with digital TV it's more of a pleasure to watch than ever before.

I used the SCART for the first time 2 months ago when I bought a cable for my AES and I am impressed with the improvement over the coax I'd been using for the last 18 years! I had no idea until I came across this forum.

Anyway I want a second small TV with SCART or direct RGB that I can use in my room at the end of my bed and play games while I'm falling asleep and then bravely continue at first light.

I still can't take the rear case off the damm thing. It's that black thing in the bottom photo. Is it some kind of tuner?

It's the flyback transformer. To disconnect it, discharge the CRT and then squeeze the anode cap hard from both sides and you should be able to maneuvre it out of its socket.

It would be too difficult to work out how to get that SCART socket going without tapping directly into the RGB lines. The SCART version of the TV may even contain different firmware.

Thanks Hewitson I'll do that. Then to make things easier I'll give it to my TV technition otherwise I won't know what I'm doing.